Broadband residential services have grown significantly over the years. Service providers of broadband services (such as xDSL, and cable) are updating their infrastructure equipment to provide bandwidths which very soon could reach 200 Mbps or higher. Consequently, the trend is to eventually converge data, video, and voice in residences.
Broadband Residential Gateways (BRGs), for instance, are expected to offer consumers wireless (and/or wired) services such as VoIP (Voice over Internet Protocol), high-speed data access, streaming video and/or audio, and content download on demand. BRGs are also expected to be utilized as a central hub for managing locally or remotely residential activities such as lighting, air conditioning, and so on.
The growth of such services gives rise to a need for managing content accessible by BRGs in a manner that is helpful and valuable to consumers and thereby provides a source of revenue for the service provider of the broadband services.